Manga UK reveal 2 new licenses, leaked episode of series by ANN, new releases!

Manga UK reveals new licenses!
On this edition of the mini news blog, we kick off with Manga Entertainment UK revealing (as promised) some new acquisitions of theirs for the forthcoming year! First, via their twitter account on Sunday they confirmed that hopefully by June or July of next year, they'll be releasing 'High School Of The Dead'! A series that was adapted to Anime form by Madhouse and only finished it's first season on Japanese TV in late September, follows a group of high schoolers who are stuck in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse!

As mentioned, Manga UK are aiming for a June/July 2011 release on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

The other title announced through the Manga UK twitter is 'Casshern Sins'! The reboot of the Casshern franchise (yet also acts as a stand alone story with it seemingly having no relation whatsoever to the original 'Neo Human Casshern') that first debuted in Japan in late 2008.

We should note, this is also a Madhouse series! (Perhaps an indication as to the direction of future Manga UK licenses?) In terms of a release date, we're looking at seeing it in shops around May or June of 2011. DVD is confirmed, but with regard to Blu-Ray, Manga UK have said "Not sure we will yet".

The next round of announcements from Manga by the look of things will be at the MCM London Expo at the end of the month!

Source: Manga UK Twitter


Leaked episode of Aniplex series questions simulcast security?
In quite the shocking story of the weekend, Anime News Network (ANN for short) were the subject of controversy following their newly debuted simulcast service (running through their website) having quite a blow in it's first week!
The story in short is one of the series they acquired the rights to simulcast through the site is the Aniplex series 'Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai' (which is nicknamed 'OreImo'). Episode 2 was due to air on Sunday in Japan and the following Saturday through the ANN site, but the complete episode was found on the ANN servers this past weekend under a 'predictable filename' according to our friends at UK Anime. The key note here is not only was it obtained seemingly with no issue on the ANN server, but it was distributed over the internet following it being discovered, allowing it to be viewed a full 24 hours before it's premiere on Japanese television stations!

While this may not be a big deal to some people, the key point in question is how much will this effect the growth of legally streaming Anime worldwide? There was a similar incident back in May of 2009 with Funimation (in the USA) planning to stream 'One Piece' on it's dedicated website, but a day before the premiere, the complete episode was obtained with English subtitles and distributed over the internet. Funimation responded by ceasing the stream, however relaunching it a few months later.

At the time of writing this, ANN have removed 'episode 2' and the archived episode 1 of 'OreImo' from it's servers. It remains to be seen if this is a temporary or permanent measure!

Source: ANN / UK-Anime


New releases this week!
And to conclude, this weeks new releases come to us in the form of 'Baccano' from Manga UK. The complete series of 16 episodes by the same writer of 'Durarara!!' (although this is an earlier work of Ryohgo Narita) but on this occasion is set in 1930's America!

If you'd like to know more about the series, we suggest reading the non-spoiler review of Andy Hanley (who was our guest co-host on episode 10 of our podcast) here.

Also released (or re-released in this case) this week, are 2 box sets by MVM with 'Gun Sword' and 'Berserk'.